A review by teabrewer
Orlando by Virginia Woolf

funny reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I want to start this review by saying that I feel like didn't fully understand this book. There were many lines that felt like a reference that I didn't get despite the many annotations that came with my edition. Be it because I'm not British, didn't live in the 1920's, wasn't part of the Bloomsbury group, am not Vita, or just because I'm dumb. Some of these may not even have been a real reference to anything and just randomness that comes with the "stream of consciousness" method. The "stream of consciousness" sections were amazing and interesting at first but did get tiring very fast. The author's writing is very funny though, in that way where it takes you a few seconds to realise there was a joke there but when you do it lights all parts of your brain. The book is full of reflections and commentaries, some interesting some not so much, many involving Orlando's legs. So many, I stopped reading to google Vita Sackville's to know what the author was talking about. The entirety of the text felt, just like Vita's son said, like a very long love letter to her. And I mean all kinds of love, be it friendship, be it romantic, be it admiration. All together in 200 or so pages.
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